Abused Word of the Day - Transparency

Submitted by Dave Kowal on Thu, 06/19/2014 - 12:56

June 19, 2014

Today's tired word was initially used more in government than in the private sector, but it's been privatized. Now companies across America are promising it, and shareholders and regulators are demanding it.

Somehow “transparency” has come to mean making everything you do more visible and open, but when something is transparent, you can’t see it. Keep that in mind when your representatives in Congress promise greater transparency and you’ll see right through them.

So what constitutes greater transparency? Is any company really going to give away its trade secrets to competitors? Should a private company open its books to the world?

Meanwhile, in government, the mysteries of what happened in Benghazi have yet to be revealed, and the e-mails of Lois Lerner and six other IRS employees have gone missing, as the IRS attempts to cover its targeting of conservative groups.